ARTICLES ABOUT OLYMPIC TORCH BY DATE - PAGE 4

LONDON (Reuters) - Mist clears to reveal white marble images from classical Greece culminating in Myron's celebrated statue of an athlete poised to launch a discus in the prologue to Leni Riefenstahl's remarkable documentary film "Olympia". The statue rotates and melts into an identical image of a contemporary discus thrower. It is succeeded by further paeans to the sculptured Greek ideal of physical beauty with pictures of a shot putter, a javelin thrower and rhythmic gymnasts.

LONDON (Reuters) - The designers of London's Olympic torch have won the Design of the Year 2012 award, organizers announced on Tuesday. London studio Barber Osgerby, a joint venture between Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, was chosen from a field of 89 entries, and honored at a ceremony at London's Design Museum. "Nothing is harder to get right than designing for the Olympics," said Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic. "The lightness and simplicity of Barber Osgerby's Olympic Torch does just that.

Following is a summary of current sports news briefs. Red Sox get ready to celebrate 100 years at Fenway BOSTON (Reuters) - Major League Baseball's oldest stadium hits the century mark on Friday and the Boston Red Sox are throwing a grand 100th anniversary bash for fabled Fenway Park. Thursday brought the Red Sox faithful an invitation to a remarkable house party, with thousands of fans welcomed into the quirky old ballpark to savor an up-close view of the diamond treasure nestled in the middle of the bustling seaboard city.

By Avril Ormsby LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - London 2012 organisers, who will stage a dress rehearsal for the Olympic torch relay on Friday, received comforting reassurance from a previous host city over fears of protests. The torches, which will be unlit, will travel by train, road and boat between Leicester and Peterborough in central England. A man who was at the heart of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics reassured Britain on Thursday that potential demonstrations are likely to melt away when national excitement takes off during the relay and the Games.

LONDON (Reuters) - The silver cup given to the marathon winner at the first modern Olympic Games staged in Athens in 1896 sold for 541,250 pounds ($860,000) in London on Wednesday, breaking the auction record for Olympic memorabilia. Breal's Silver Cup stands just six inches tall and was offered for sale at Christie's by the grandson of the victor, Greek athlete Spyros Louis. Bearing the same name as his grandfather, Louis said the final price was beyond what he could have imagined.

HOUSTON -- Houston Rockets center Yao Ming is retiring, according to a report by Yahoo! Sports. The 7-foot-6 Chinese star, plagued by lower-body injuries in the second half of his career, has informed the league office that his playing career is over, the website reported on Friday. The Rockets declined to comment on the report because of the lockout, and the NBA has not received official retirement paperwork from Yao. Yao's contract expired after last season, and the Rockets said they were interested in re-signing him if he came back healthy.